Three-year-old IT firm set to hit £1.1m in sales

A young entrepreneur who set up a cloud computing company – where hardware and software resources are provided over the internet – in 2009 has seen its turnover rise sixfold since its first full year.

Cloud Business, which counts Vodafone, online fashion retailer Asos and sandwich shop chain Pret A Manger among its clients, is on track to achieve sales of £1.1 million for 2012.

Backed by the Cass Entrepreneurship Fund – a £10 million venture capital fund investing in start-up and earlystage companies – James Butler, 31, set up Cloud Business in Guildford, Surrey, after six years working at Microsoft.

Pret has since used it to move the email system for its 290 shops to a single cloud service and City law firm Clifford Chance has used the company to adopt instant messaging for its staff communications.

In June, Cloud Business won the 2012 Microsoft Office 365 Commercial Partner of the Year Award.

Butler said: ‘In these competitive times I believe we will see a significant uptake in retail customers opting to shift core services to the cloud.’